Tag: JD Vance

Posted on

Walzing to a Win — Vance dance slick, but hobbled by Trumpentruths

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

October 1st, 2024

On the surface, tonight’s vice-presidential debates harkened back to debates prior to the Trump era. Both candidates were articulate, reasonable-sounding, and civil. If you stripped the content of the debate of all context, they seemed evenly matched. Give Vance credit: he came across as human, a feature he has struggled with since he was nominated.

But he was badly crippled by the fact that he had to present the general lunacy of Trumpentruths. Thus, he had to spout utter absurdities as “Trump saved the ACA” Really? Nobody remembers Trump’s campaign to repeal it, a drive that was stymied in the final minute by a dramatic midnight thumbs-down gesture by a dying John McCain? Walz, thinking fast, immediately brought up that seven years later, Trump only has a “concept of a plan” to deal with health care.

He had to mirror Trump’s waffling on the issue of bodily autonomy. So he had to simultaneously pretend that Trump ended abortion while saying that the public wanted the states to determine a woman’s right to abortion. Walz parried it beautifully, noting that fundamental rights should not be subject to geography. It was the perfect response to the GOP pretense that it’s a states’ rights issue: the constitution supersedes states in the matter of establishing rights, and no state may suborn a national civil right.

On health care, in addition to the ACA blunder, Vance tried to argue that costs of health care needed to be distributed, and not the sole domain of government. He managed to say it in such a way that he wasn’t saying people should depend on churches for health care.

Vance had to evade answering the yes-no-no question, “Is the climate changing?” His response went, “One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions, this idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change … let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument.” He fluffed the question, saying that the all-powerful Harris should have reduced pollution by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, saying (falsely) that the US has the cleanest economy in the world. He claimed, again falsely, that solar panels are all made in China, although when pressed, he muttered that the parts that go into solar panels were made there. Under Biden, of course, manufacturing jobs have been returning to the US (Harris may have supported him, doubtlessly did, but vice presidents don’t have any particular authority on this). He tried saying that Trump did not consider climate change despite the fact that Trump is on record, repeatedly, for making that very claim.

Vance had to bash immigrants since that’s the centerpiece of Trump’s Naziesque hate campaign. He tried blaming immigrants for the high cost of housing, but had to back off when Walz noted that immigration was dropping. I would have noted that few immigrants are financially able to buy a home.

Confronted with the fruits of his hate campaign against Springfield, Ohio, he tried saying that the only reason they were there was because Harris (apparently the most powerful vice president in history) let them in under a special refugee law. They did in fact enter under such a law—one signed by Donald Trump. Oh, and at the invitation of Springfield, which needed labor.

Finally, and this was where Vance successfully knocked himself out, he tried the pretense that Trump did not want to overturn the 2020 election, and wanted only a peaceful protest at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. He couldn’t handle the question that he had stated that if he had been vice president instead of Mike Pence, he would have rejected the electoral vote citing “questions” and thrown it to Congress. (In the event of a legitimate tie in the electoral college, Congress could vote on who won. And it isn’t a straight up-and-down vote: each state gets one vote, and in 2021, the outgoing Congress had a majority representation in 27 states. They might have overturned the election had Mike Pence not done his job.)

A lot of people have said that Trump made a poor choice when he selected JD Vance as his running mate. But watching him squirm and battle to toe the party line, the absurd Trumpentruths that have turned the GOP into an anti-American and savage cult, I think it wasn’t Trump who made the bad choice for a running mate. It was JD Vance who made the poor choice for a running mate.

Vice Presidential debates rarely shift votes, and it’s unlikely this one did. Walz won, both on presentation and debate points. It wasn’t the utter carnage of the first two presidential debates, and won’t get a lot of attention.

But watching Vance, and how slick and mentally agile he was, I realized how fantastically dangerous this soulless man would be if he elects to run in 2028, armed with his own Trumpentruths.

 

Posted on

Home Stretch — Putting on the afterburners

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 26th 2024

David McAfee at Raw Story noticed a seminal remark posted by Adam Kinzinger, former Republican Congressman that utterly captures the deep change in the political landscape that we’ve seen over the past six weeks or so.

“‘Something happened at the DNC that will be written about for years.” the ex-lawmaker said. ‘Donald Trump has given up traditional Republican ground, and the Democrats and Kamala snatched it up. Trump gave up being the defense candidate by becoming weak and panicked, and embracing Russia.’

“Kinzinger went on to say that that Harris ‘said she wants to make the most lethal military ever and stand up to dictators. Trump gave up being the proud American party. They hate America which is obvious to all but the most loyal MAGA. Kamala showed her pride in the country AS IT IS TODAY, not pining for the 1950s. Trump gave up being the border hawk. While this will take time to recognize, I believe cracks have started. Kamala reminded everyone that Trump tanked the hawkish border bill, and committed to signing it (in front of a loudly cheering crowd).

‘Trump ceded the ground of opportunity and vision. His constant whining and focus on the past. Kamala showed a forward looking vision. Trump gave up law and order. Not just on Jan 6, but attacking The FBI, questioning the CIA, and calling for violence. And now an awards ceremony for Jan 6 criminals. Kamala showed appreciation for police and stressed her role as a prosecutor. The Dems are now on their way to being the Patriotic, USA chanting, America loving party, and the Republicans look like the bitter old men who are angry that the country is vibrant and dynamic.;”

I had noticed that even with the joy and inclusiveness and cheers, a lot of what Democrats had to say reminded me of some of the speeches we would hear at RNC conventions in 2004 or 2008. It was an era where Republicans hadn’t embraced meanness, cruelty, exclusiveness and bigotry as their standards.

The horrific thing is that this is about all that the GOP have remaining. They’ve lost all the “issues” they hoped to run on: Biden’s age, the economy, inflation, national pride, abortion, crime. Everything improved under Biden except his age. And most Republicans are coming to realize that the golden apple of tearing down Roe v. Wade in fact was a poisoned apple, turning most of the country against them.

My friend Isaac Peterson of the Weasels wrote me, saying, “It doesn’t help matters that Trump is incapable of even giving the appearance of being able to accommodate anybody outside of his base. He just doesn’t give a shit about anybody else and it shows. I still believe his NABJ BS was intended to appeal to them rather than black voters.

“He can’t appeal to anybody else because he doesn’t care about anybody else and his lack of empathy means he just cannot relate to anybody else. Definitely not enough to try to communicate on their (our) terms or to even acknowledge their (our) concerns. His contempt comes through loud and clear.

“His flocks of howler monkeys can’t recognize he doesn’t even actually care about them either.”

If Trump didn’t have enough problems, a fair chunk of his base are furious because he isn’t vicious and fascistic enough. The zealots are mad because he backed away from a pledge to make abortion illegal in all states. The National Association of Zealots and Ideologues are mad because he backed away from their treasured Project 2025. And the bigots are furious because he suggested the US should allow aliens with college degrees in and even give them green cards.

Bad enough that with this lot, Trump gets up with fleas, but they all growl loudly when he tries to brush the fleas off.

As a result, Trump is floundering in a no-mans’-land between MAGA and the rest of America, and he’s bleeding support from both sides.

The DNC and Kamala Harris (her campaign has blue hats emblazoned with “ , la “) came out of the convention with a three point lead nationally over Trump, and small leads in most of the battleground states. The convention “bounce” (which Trump didn’t get) will show up in next week’s polls, and I expect to see her leading by five to seven points, and nearly all of the battleground states. That will fade as the warm glow from the convention dies.

But not fade away. We’re in the final stretch now, ten weeks left, and it’s going to be one furious fight.

There’s already speculation about “October surprises.” Which is shorthand for dirty tricks, and by no means limited to October. The allegations and rumors will get more and more lurid. I already heard one today that had Trump dumping JD Vance as his running mate and selecting Robert Kennedy Junior. That one’s so crazy I suspect it may have come from the Democrats. Trump tried snarling that Tim Walz was only an ASSISTANT coach, and in a brilliant riposte, the Dems replied, “Maybe that’s why he’s running for VICE president.”

I feel disquiet about the flag waving and bellows of “USA! USA!” Pep rally patriotism is a dark lake a thousand miles wide and an inch deep, and can turn toxic with the slightest change in the wind. I’m hoping that once clear of the convention, the flag-waving will subside to thoughtful patriotism.

In the meantime, keep an eye on Joe Biden. Yes, he’s a lame duck, but he IS still the president, and he still has the acumen and abilities that made him the most successful one-term president in American history. He may have an October surprise or two up his sleeve, and it won’t be the sort of nasty ones like sabotaging the Vietnam Paris talks or the hostage release with Iran or the email like we’ve seen in years past. Biden has a “Nuthin’ up my sleeve, Rocky” air about him. He’s up to something. Whatever it is, I suspect we’ll like it.

So. Off to the races. And may the best woman win!

Posted on

The Trump Grump — Claiming Harris-ment?

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 14th, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

I had fun (or some equivalent word that carries the same meaning as “enjoying getting a root canal”) watching the Trump/Vance show with Mark Robinson in North Carolina today. No, I wasn’t in North Carolina. It’s August, and I’m not nuts. That’s just where the rally was.

Now, Robinson himself is a real piece of work. He attained his political philosophy from reading the gospel of Saint Limbaugh of the Rushes, and just sort of went downhill from there. He is true to those teachings, I’m sad to say. He’s opposed to abortion under all circumstances, unless one of those circumstances happens to be that Mark Robinson is the daddy. He denies climate change, and wants marijuana consumption to be a felony. He prattles on about the Rothschilds and “international bankers” which is a red flag to any Jew. Robinson also wrote: “this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash,” and “There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered.” (Caps are his, a grammatical twitch he shares with Trump.)

“There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes I called it filth. And if you don’t like that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.” He also wants to end the separation of church and state in public schools.

OK. He seems nice. He’s a big part of Trump’s outreach to minorities, you know. He was Trump’s second choice for that job, but then it came to light that his first choice, Uncle Ruckus, was a fictional character.

The Trump campaign billed today’s rally as being a major policy address on the economy. Trump addressed that with the laser-like focus that we’ve all learned to associate with him, telling the small crowd he was “not sure” he agreed that the economy is the most important issue of the election. I guess he got the news that inflation was 0.2% for the past three months, and that the polls showed people had more faith in the Democratic Party to manage the economy—the first such result in nearly twenty years. So suddenly the economy is no big deal. Trumpkins, write that down. It will be on the final exam.

Trump said he would cut gas and energy prices in half. No, really. He said that. But that noble determination and vision that is the Trump trademark caused him to add, “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh well, I voted for him. I still got it down a lot.’” No, really. He said THAT, too. Gas production is at record heights right now, and gas prices are lower than they were in 2021. I begin to understand why Trump doesn’t want to get into the nuts and bolts of economics.

A few years ago, Trump said, “The economy always seems to be better under Democrats than it is under Republicans. It shouldn’t be, but it is.” That was before he entered politics and still had most of his marbles.

He doubled down, quite literally, on the tariffs he wants to impose. It had been a 10% tariff on all imports. Now he wants it to be 20%.I devoted an entire essay to that notion a couple of months ago, detailing what a catastrophic mess it would make of the economy. All I said then, times two.

He also said the day he takes office there will be the biggest economic boom. “It will be a boom,” he promised. Um, yeah. OK.

Trump also praised his sit-down with Elon Musk, saying it was “one of the most successful shows ever done”. Watching him discuss climate change with the nepo baby who runs Ex-twitter brought to mind the phrase “Beavis and Butthead try to work the microwave.” If stupidity could alleviate climate change, those two would have us in an ice age by now.

Trump also stopped to mock Harris’ laugh. He’s on safe ground there: Nobody has ever seen him laugh, and I’m not convinced he understands why people laugh. Perhaps he thinks it’s from an itchy nose, or a sort of cough only the uncouth engage in.

The rest of his “policy statement” was the usual mish-mash of lies and smears.

Meanwhile, Shady JD continued his own particular charm offensive. Today’s offering was his opinion that the role of post-menopausal women was to be baby sitters. After all, if they can’t pump out babies, of what use are they?

While Vance hasn’t agreed to it yet, Tim Walz and CBS News have agreed to a vice presidential debate on October 1st. Walz said, “I’ve got to tell you. I can’t wait to debate the guy. That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up,” The chesterfield jokes, admittedly unfair, are slowly dying down and will go away. Or you might say, “Sofa, so good.”

Trump is trying to lay the groundwork for challenging Harris’ candidacy, arguing that switching candidates in mid campaign is unconstitutional. It’s not, of course. In fact, the constitution doesn’t mention political parties at all. Quite a few of the Founders were hoping political parties wouldn’t arise in the first place, and originally, it was set up so whoever got the second-most votes in a presidential election automatically became the vice-president. George Washington considered the costs of having to hire a food taster and suggested an alternate approach might be tied. But Trump is lining up ways to seize office no matter how the vote goes. And he has some of the most powerful scumbags in the country behind him.

So even though things are going Harris’ way for now, don’t let down your guard. Even if Trump is an insensate drooler by election day, there are some who want him as a figurehead. Be vigilant.

Posted on

The Trump Dump — No matter how high you pile garbage, it has a downhill side as well

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 31st, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

It’s truly impossible to describe how bad a month the Trump campaign has had. Oh, I’ll try anyway.

A month ago today, Trump was riding high. He had just had a debate with Joe Biden that by any reasonable metric, Trump lost badly, offering nothing in the way of policy or ideas and just offering the usual melange of lies and smears that seems to be the extent of his campaigning philosophy. But Biden, suffering a cold, faltered badly, and the press declared Trump the winner, more or less by default. The Biden campaign was crippled, and people were declaring it DOA.

As the nation obsessed over Biden’s age and health, Trump went on the road, campaigning vigorously. By mid month, polls were showing him leading in most of the battleground states.

Then on the 13th, he was grazed by a bullet. While the wound was minor, the peril was very real, and the showman Trump had enough presence of mind to strike a heroic pose and shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as Secret Service agents tried frantically to get him to safety.

Then on the 15th, the Republicans held their national convention. It was only here the first cracks in what was to prove a catastrophic collapse appeared. First, Trump announced the day before the convention that he had picked JD Vance as his running mate. JD himself, an unlikeable extremist, was a decision that bespoke the high level of Trump’s confidence. He felt no need to reach outside his base. Vance, unnatural offspring of Ted Cruz and Stephen Miller, was red meat for the base. Much of the rest of the country recoiled.

The timing was strange, as well. The VP choice was about the only element of suspense the convention had. Trump could have assured himself of more viewers if he had waited to the end of his acceptance speech to announce that Vance was his running mate.

The speech was the next crack. He promised a speech of unity and moderation, and that lasted about ten minutes. Then it was back to the usual fest of angry lies and sneers.

The public didn’t have time to consider these mistakes before the next windfall came for Trump.

Biden announced on July 21st that he was dropping out, and at first did not announce who he would suggest to succeed him, leaving the possibility of an open convention, a politically disastrous event.

For the first time, I felt Trump, despite everything, could win. Trump clearly felt the same way.

It’s no exaggeration to refer to the rise of the Harris campaign as the Kamala Harris Miracle. Trump had, though complete fault of his own, failed to capitalize on the good will that came from getting shot at, having a convention, naming a young newcomer his VP running mate, and driving his opponent out of the race. At at time when he should have been able to put the race away, he began to lose ground.

It was incremental. He was secretive and sneaky about his medical condition following the shooting, and simultaneously tried to capitalize on it in pure Trump style, with tacky, vastly overpriced pair of sneaks with his “heroic pose” image. His acceptance speech angered his detractors and put his supporters to sleep. Vance quickly proved to be a major political blunder, as some of his statements and flaws came out. Project 2025, basically a Mein Kampf for the 21st century, rose in the public consciousness, and despite Trump’s frantic efforts to rebrand it as Agenda 47 and then disown it altogether, dragged on him. Most of the creators of that manifesto were Trump people, past, present and future.

If he had hoped to drive Biden out in disgrace, it backfired. Biden is being treated (rightly) as an honored elder, and suddenly it’s Trump under scrutiny for his mental and physical (and psychological) fitness.

Stories about Vance, some lurid and some true, spread like wild fire. Trump compulsively babbled nonsense about Hannibal Lecter and sharks. The Harris campaign gleefully framed their race as The Prosecutor versus the Felon.

Today, however, the Trump campaign essentially collapsed. Trump elected to do a press conference / town hall with the National Association of Black Journalists. The moderators made it clear they weren’t going to throw softballs, and Trump just came apart at the seams. He told the crowd he was the best president for African Americans since Abraham Lincoln. He said that Kamala Harris was always “just Indian” and had only in the past two years started pretending to be black. When he repeated his lie about Democrats wanting abortion to be legal even after birth, he got called a liar to his face. It may have been the most disastrous campaign event in US history. Yes, it was that bad.

Then Vance, his creepy VP candidate attacked Simone Biles as “lazy” and “cowardly” on the SAME FUCKING DAY she wins a gold medal for the USA. He was attacking her for being unable to compete in the last Olympics four years ago because of a stress-related breakdown.

Simone Biles is America’s sweetheart and today was her day of redemption. There was never a good time for a sleazy attack like that, but he picked the worst day possible. He should have been filmed setting fire to live kittens in front of the American Nazi Party headquarters. It would have been a better look for him.

And yet, the day wasn’t over. There was one more moment of yin. Trump’s readers on Truth Social should have exploded over this past month  Instead, they’re falling like a rock. Visitors are down by a third from two months ago. He hasn’t just alienated people who hadn’t decided, but he’s now shedding his own true believers.

Trump is dead.

Posted on

A Turn for the Douche — Trump reaches down for VP pick

A Turn for the Douche

Trump reaches down for VP pick

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 16th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Before he became a vulture capitalist and began his descent into utter dirtbaggery, JD Vance would occasionally say some things that suggested at least some personal integrity. For instance, in his book Hillbilly Elegy, he described Trump as “cultural heroin” and someone “leading the white working class to a very dark place”.

He told a friend, “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

In 2016 he told the NY Times, “Mr Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

Also: “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

Or how about “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.”?

Well, that’s all bye the bye now. He’s now Donald’s choice as vice presidential candidate, there to fluff Donald on command and snarl and threaten all those who oppose Donald.

It just happened to be coincidence, I suppose, that the update that Vance had been named VP candidate happened just as my disk mix started playing Garfunkel and Oates’ “This Party Just Took a Turn for the Douche.” (NSFW, but very funny).

The GOP has been on a steady downward trajectory since 1964, when the John Bircher crowd managed to make Barry Goldwater their nominee. He lost by a huge margin, of course, and what the Birchers (read: The Koch Brothers) learned was they would have to set up a vast propaganda apparatus and take control of the nation’s press, suborn the legislatures and courts to make it easy to buy elections, and get at least one major party to put their interests well ahead of the nation’s.

Thus was born the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, thousand of other “think tanks” (Goebbelese for “propaganda pits”), Rush Limbaugh and his control of AM radio throughout rural America, a vast right wing network, the takeover of local news and newspapers, and the neutering of “mainstream” media such as the New York Times or CNN.

If you think Trump and Vance 2024 is as low as it gets, expect it to get much worse. Germany 1938 worse.

Trump is Trump. He got grazed by a bit of shattered glass, and one of his fans was killed trying to shelter his family from the bullets. Trump never tried to call to console the family—instead he went out and played golf. It’s an example, though, of how thoroughly he has poisoned the minds of his followers: President Biden DID try to call the widow to console her, and they refused to take the call. Better to be ignored by a fascists then cared about by a Democrat, I suppose. That’s pretty sick.

Trump is trying to pretend he knows nothing (“I know Nuffink!!”) about Project 2025, and his followers are marching in lockstep. They’ve been told to say that Agenda 2030 is a far greater danger to America. Here’s a link to that 2015 laundry list of goals: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Read it, and cower in terror. They want you to be fed, clothed, housed, free from tyranny, and all kinds of mean nasty horrible things like that. The right is hoping that while you are running away waving your hands and squealing like a piggy, you pretend that Project 2025 is just an example of liberal hysteria and no self-respecting conservative supports it and besides it’s not all that bad any way. Here’s a link to that: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf Since it’s over 900 pages, you might just want an overview: https://democracyforward.org/the-peoples-guide-to-project-2025/

The fourth pillar of Project 2025 (yes, it has pillars, just like Islam, only Islam’s are a lot nicer) is the transition plan for the first 180 days of the Trump administration. Kind of hard to believe that none of Trump’s people have heard of it, especially since 140 of his top aides from his last administration co-authored Project 2025. Basically, it’s a nightmare. Restores the Spoils System, makes all government workers Trumps’ personal serfs who he can fire and hire at will. Eliminates most of the departments of government, including the EPA, Education, Health and Human Services, and such vital agencies as NOAA, and FEMA.

We already know what sort of man Donald is. Now we know Vance is no better. And Project 2025 tells you a lot about the people supporting Trump.

They aren’t doing it for you. As far at they are concerned, you are there to generate revenue, buy their stuff, and keep your fucking trap shut.

It won’t be a fun existence. Especially since tyrannies like that need endless scapegoats to distract and intimidate you with. They’ll start with immigrants, but it won’t stop there. The camps will grow huge, and as they grow huge, more expensive. You can probably figure you where things go from there.

Don’t listen to what Trump and Vance say: they are inveterate liars and hypocrites. Instead, see what their supporters say. There’s the real agenda, and it’s an ugly one.

“The real problem is what they want to do to the dollar, the constitution, the judiciary and the rules based international system is an absolute train wreck, a perversion of what was once conservatism. It is a brand of anarcho-Christian populism, which borders on fascism; it is a very dangerous time for the United States. The deficit spending is out of control and if they devalue the dollar they’re going to disrupt the entire global capitalist system. The United States could lead the world out of this problem, but it would need to do it in a way that is almost the opposite of what they are doing.” — Anthony Scaramucci on Project 2025

Posted on

When A Party Hits An Iceberg — Back up and ram that sumbitch again!

When A Party Hits An Iceberg

Back up and ram that sumbitch again!

April 23rd, 2022

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

For the Republicans, this was a week they would probably love to forget. For the Trump crowd in particular, it was an unmitigated disaster.

It started when the Kansas City Star, one of Missouri’s biggest papers, blasted the disgusting Josh Hawley, who disgraced himself by promoting the blood libel against now-Justice Jackson and liberals in general with loud brays about being soft on child porn. Turns out that when Hawley was Attorney-General in his state, not only did the office do little to chase down child pornographers, but Hawley simply dropped cases when he left office to run for the Senate. The editorial concluded, “Loud. Attention-grabbing. Do-nothing. A lime green leisure suit on a hanger. We challenge Sen. Hawley to take a fresh look at the crimes against children committed in his own state, including allegations against elected officials in his own party, and actually do something to protect kids.” Ouch.

Steven Miller, strutting pink dome of the American fascist movement, publicly admitted on Lou Dobbs that they tried to get tens of millions of votes tossed as part of their campaign to overturn the election. Just another of those “operational control” boasts, I guess.

Then Trump blew up the Ohio primary by ignoring urgent pleas from party members in the state and endorsed the reptilian and unelectable JD Vance. Informed that Vance once referred to Trump as “America’s Hitler” Trump shrugged it off, saying everyone “said shit” about him. Could it be that Trump has finally grown a thicker hide? Or was he too far gone mentally to come up with anything?

Then, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to withdraw from its participation in the Commission on Presidential Debates. Granted, the way the parties conduct those debates has been pretty much a joke since 1960, but at least the Republicans were pretending to care about elections and accountability to the public. That’s drowned in a fascist tide of black and red ink, it seems. The only surprise is that they give up an opportunity to spew the endless hate and lies that they have substituted for public policy.

Florida’s Ron DeSantis, racing toward a sort of a Nazi Disneyland, banned 29 math books for containing “critical race theory”. People examining the books have absolutely no idea what the hell Florida’s five-and-dime Hitler is talking about. He then unilaterally rewrote the state’s congressional districts, awarding his party four seats and eliminating at least one black district. Having done that, he proclaimed Florida to be a “free state” because it’s illegal to admit that gays or transgenders exist any place a child might hear it. He made them unpersons, just like Hitler did with the Jews.

The other demented state governor, Greg Abbott, unilaterally decided to have Texas conduct “safety inspections” of trucks that bring produce and other Mexican goods into the state. The resulting line of trucks had to wait up to thirty hours to cross the border while perishable contents rotted. Hundreds of millions of dollars died so the guv could look like he was Doing Something. Abbott, before climbing down from the pose, declared he was just trying to stop drugs and illegal humans from entering the state. There’s no evidence the stops caught any.

The American Accountability Foundation was dragged out from the shadows by Jane Mayer,the author of the acclaimed 2016 book Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. The AAF is dedicated to blocking all Biden nominees, and fuck what it does to the country. Meyer believes they are the source of the disgraceful “soft on child porn” claims brought to bear by trashier elements of the Senate GOP in the Jackson hearings.

Donald Trump on Easter Sunday wished a “Happy Easter” to everyone, including what he said were “radical left maniacs.” Jesus only died for right wing maniacs, it seems.

Another god-struck clown, one John Carlos, running for school board in Nevada, said, “I believe the Constitution. I believe in our — our — the way our founding fathers believed in this country: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It was bad enough that he thought the Constitution said that, but he continued, “That means that homosexuals cannot procreate. This goes against our Constitution and this goes against what parents want in the school district, and this is only one book out of thousands.” So apparently this nut thinks if you don’t have kids you are violating the Constitution, or the Declaration of Independence, at least. George III is gonna be so ticked if you don’t pump those kids out for god and the king!

No week of GOP embarrassment is complete without Lauren Boebert weighing in. She said, “comprehensive sex education” teaches that one “can choose your gender” and “abortion is a form of birth control.” Bit surprised she didn’t claim sex ed was child molestation. Perhaps she didn’t want to annoy her husband.

Memphis resident Peter McIndoe jokingly invented the Birds Aren’t Real conspiracy theory in January 2017. The notion is that all the birds died—wind mills, presumably—and were replaced by drones. In terms of sheer silliness, it’s right up there with the conspiracy theories that JFK Junior and Princess Di are all secretly alive, or that Trump is the Second Coming. It’s making inroads in the GOP, a report Tuesday said.

Then the really big pratfalls began.

US district judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, in Tampa ruled that public carriers could not mandate masks. The “judge,” a Trump appointee, heard no arguments and simply wrote the order. It strikes down any effort to ensure reasonable safety of passengers against any sort of communicable disease. The ruling, much like the “judge” herself, is utterly insane. She was deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, but McConnell’s GOP whooped this 35 year old nut onto the bench for life on a party line vote.

Hima Kolanagireddy filed to run for Michigan’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday. Normally that wouldn’t be news outside of Michigan, but Hima, an Indian immigrant, has a unique theory as to how Trump had the election stolen from him. All Chinese look alike, it seems. She said, “I think all Chinese people look alike. So, how would you tell? If some Chow show up, you can be anybody and you can vote,” Um, “Chow”? I’m used to hateful GOP idiocy, but on this one I can’t even…

Michigan Republican Lana Theis accused a Democratic state Senate colleague of being a pedophile because she supports LGBTQ+ equality. It’s the usual vicious crap Republicans, fed their two minutes of hate by the American Accountability Foundation, have been spewing for several weeks. But she picked the wrong target in Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a diminutive representative more than willing to stand up for her rights and her personal integrity. In a fiery speech that rocketed around the net, she said, “I sat on it for a while wondering why me? Then I realized… I’m the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. Because you can’t claim that you’re targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up and saying no. So, you dehumanize and marginalize ME. You say I’m one of THEM. You say she’s a groomer, she supports pedophilia, she wants children to believe they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they’re white. Here’s a little background on who I really am…I learned that SERVICE was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing ‘Christian’ in your Twitter bio and using it as a shield to target and marginalize already-marginalized people.”

Ted Cruz, always willing to be inappropriate and weird, decided that what Disney cartoons really needed was a spot of the old Rule 34*. He said, “I think there are people who are misguided, trying to drive, you know, Disney stepping in, saying, you know, in every episode now they’re gonna have, you know, Mickey and Pluto going at it. Like, really? It’s just like, come on guys, these are kids, and you know, you could always shift to Cinemax if you want that. Like, why do you have—it used to be, look, I’m a dad. You used to be able to put your kids on the Disney Channel and be like, alright, something innocuous will happen.” He should have suggested Goofy and Pluto ‘go at it.’ At least they’re the same species. The GOP probably doesn’t approve of interspecies romance.

Trump decided to sue Hillary Clinton for fraud and racketeering in relation to the 2016 election. It’s hard to guess what he hoped to accomplish, but Hillary, no fool, will probably just grin and announce she’s fighting the suit. It makes all of her—and Trump’s—activities in the 2016 election open to discovery, including all the things Mueller couldn’t include in his report.

Tennessee GOP members kicked Trump’s endorsed candidates off the ballot as well. “Morgan Ortagus, Baxter Lee and Robby Starbuck were voted off the primary ballot by the party’s executive committee, Tennessee Republican Chairman Scott Golden confirmed Tuesday. Republican officials last week confirmed official challenges had been filed against the three, which triggered a technical removal from the ballot per party bylaws,” the Tennessean reported.” Oops.

Abbott had another own goal when the NY Times revealed that he had been lavishly funding the non-partisan group Crime Stoppers, and suddenly their message got a whole lot more partisan. According to a New York Times report, “Crime Stoppers of Houston has been blasting out a different, more political message: Activist judges are letting ‘dangerous criminals’ out of jail to threaten the safety of law-abiding residents. On television, Twitter and videos, the traditionally nonpartisan nonprofit organization has been condemning more than a dozen elected judges — all Democrats, four of whom lost primaries last month — while praising the crime policies of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican.” It’s estimated that Abbott funneled $6.4 million to the group. A pity, really: they used to be a socially valuable outfit.

Well, that would be a pretty disgraceful week in politics, even for the GOP. But no, we’re just getting started.

Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns released a book called This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future. In it, they claimed Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell, the two top Republican leaders in Congress, privately told associates that they believed Donald Trump should be held responsible for the attack. “I’ve had it with this guy,” McCarthy told a group of Republicans in the immediate aftermath of the attack. McCarthy immediately and vociferously denied the claims.

But oops. There were tapes. Rachel Maddow, wearing a wide grin, played them on her show that night. We’ve long suspected that McCarthy was a liar and a fool who had lost control of the wingnuts in his caucus, but now we have proof. Typical of Republicans, rather than demand McCarthy resign in disgrace (a few did, but only a few) most are trying to ferret out who released the tapes. At first Liz Cheney was considered a prime suspect, but unlike most Republicans, when she says something, it tends to be the truth. She denied having, or releasing the tapes. Suspicion now rests on Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is rumored to be gunning for McCarthy’s job. She would be no improvement, but that’s neither here nor there. Trump and McCarthy put on a kiss-and-make-up show, but reports are Trump and McCarthy are both furious. Rick Wilson semi-joked that Stefanik might want to invest in a good food taster for the next few months.

Rioters at the 1/6 “peaceful demonstration” continued to drop like flies. According to Raw Story, “Two members of an accelerationist neo-Nazi terror network accused of plotting to attack the power grid in preparation for an assassination campaign have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government’s prosecution…Paul James Kryscuk, a former porn actor who used the alias ‘Deacon’ while active in the neo-Nazi group BSN from 2017 through 2020, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility on Feb. 10, with the possibility of receiving a reduction from a 15-year prison sentence in exchange for ‘substantial assistance’ in the government’s prosecution in the case.

Following Kryscuk’s plea, Marine Corps veteran Justin Wade Hermanson aka ‘Sandman’ entered a guilty plea for conspiracy to illegally manufacture, ship, transport and receive firearms on March 8. Like Kryscuk, Hermanson’s plea deal includes an agreement to cooperate with the government’s investigation and testify against his codefendants should they go to trial. Both men pleaded in the Eastern District of North Carolina, where the case is being tried.” A lot of defendants are trying to blame Trump for their misdeeds, claiming the ex-president goaded them into it. It isn’t helping them, but when Trump is eventually tried, they will be an embarrassing impediment to his claims that he wasn’t trying to start trouble. Twelve hundred right wing nuts can’t be wrong, right?

New York Attorney General Letitia James has referred contempt charges against Donald Trump with the Department of Justice. Your move, Merrick Garland.

Now, when people think to the sexual probity of the GOP, they don’t think of saving schools from critical race theory math perverts. They think of Giuliani in drag, or propositioning an underage girl while being filmed by a comedian. They think of Ted Cruz in his assless chaps. (Yes, and I’ve seen the picture. More bleach for my eyes, please.) Madison Cawthorn made headlines a few weeks ago by claiming the GOP leadership kept inviting him to cocaine-and-sex orgies. This week, images emerged of old Maddy, apparently at a wild party that greatly resembled those GOP church meetings, wearing women’s lingerie. While not politically important (Cawthorn’s career is deader than disco) it was a kind of a capstone to the pyramid of Republican hypocrisy and duplicity when it comes to safeguarding the public morality.

Finally, Marjorie Taylor Greene had to testify in a civil suit yesterday about her words and actions in relation to January 6th, facing a suit to have her barred from running again on 14th amendment grounds. It did not go well for her. She flat-out denied that she had called Nancy Pelosi a traitor, and when the lawyer asked for video #5 to be shown, she stammered, wait! Um…I meant she was a traitor because she wasn’t securing the southern border.

Her poor lawyer tried claiming that laws against insurrection applied to Civil War traitors only, and then in a truly bizarre twist, claimed executive privilege on Taylor-Greene’s behalf. Now, I’m not a lawyer, don’t even play one on TV, but I’m pretty sure that the only person who can claim executive privilege is the sitting US president. If you want to get a big grin out of Joe Biden, Marge, you could ask him to claim executive privilege on your behalf. Biden has a good sense of humor—he’ll enjoy hearing that one.

Wow—2,500 words, and I had to skip a few rounds from the GOP circular firing squad. Next time some bozo tries saying the two parties are the same, ask them when the last time was the Democrats had a week like this.

And then ask yourself why America hasn’t simply laughed the GOP out of existence.

Rule 34*: “If it exists, there’s a porn version of it on the web.”

error

Enjoy Zepps Commentaries? Please spread the word :)